Residents of the currently undeveloped Blekersveld site in Overveen will soon be able to participate in the discussion and submit their ideas about the use of the area. The council wants to build eighty social rental homes there for the time being and recently informed the neighborhood of this. However, he feels put on the spot.
Councilor Gamri promises the council that local residents will still be given ‘every space’ to discuss the development of the area. Some local residents are against eighty social rental homes, because that would increase the pressure on the village too much. They also want to know for which target group(s) the homes are being built.
Serious
The VVD wants Gamri to enter into open discussions with local residents and to abandon the plan for the eighty homes. The difficult thing is that before the coalition collapsed, the council also voted with a majority in favor of this plan. Under the new coalition, a majority wanted to withdraw the plan through a motion, because the neighborhood was not involved in the plans. That motion was also adopted.
Gamri states that she is not ignoring that motion now and is taking the neighborhood seriously. But she also says that ‘there is nothing wrong with the council having an idea and then taking it into the conversation with local residents.’ Moreover, it would also be legally difficult to suddenly sweep the eighty-home plan off the table.
Multiple scenarios
If the neighborhood proposes a completely different scenario for Blekersveld, it is advisable to consider it later. Gamri hopes to come up with several scenarios from the conversation with local residents.
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Double feelings
Stijn de Geus, who represents a group of residents of Blekersveld with the Blekersveldgroen foundation, reacts with mixed feelings to the councilor’s promise. “We’ll see. So far, those conversations with the municipality have never really gotten off the ground. The letter also states quite firmly that it concerns eighty social rental homes and that there will be an information evening for the neighborhood. Then I think Rather an evening where ‘the municipality sends and the neighborhood receives’. Anyway, we have to wait and see.”
The foundation has not yet considered an alternative scenario. “In any case, there are different types of homes. That would improve the quality of life in the area,” says De Geus.
The conversation between the municipality of Bloemendaal, housing association Bredero Wonen and local residents will probably take place in October.